reversal
by loudmouthbastard
Summary: "The Deku I knew wouldn't do this! The Deku I knew wanted to be a hero!" Midoriya Izuku finds himself with a quirk and a grudge.


Izuku jumps off the roof. He jumps but he doesn't die. He shatters every bone in his feet and legs. They have to call in a specialist to heal him and remove the bits of broken bone they can't repair. It's while he's sitting at home healing and stretching his arm out for the water glass that's just out of his reach that he notices a big change. It moves just ever so slightly into reach. He tries again a moment later with the television remote.

"Mom! Mom! Get in here! You have to see this!"

She rushes in from the kitchen with a towel still in here hand. "Izuku, what is it?"

"Look!" He says, tears streaming down his face as he moves the water glass across his bedside table a quarter inch. "I finally got my quirk!"

She holds him in her arms and weeps. They aren't quite tears of joy because here is her baby, broken and crushed but still managing to find a spark of hope to hold onto.

By the end of his three months of bedrest, he's mastered moving small objects around his room. The first thing he does when he gets the okay to walk around is take down all of his All Might posters and memorabilia and sells them. He goes to the beach in the mornings and works to strengthen his quirk by picking up trash from a local dumping ground and by the end of summer he's lifting a whole fridge with his quirk into the back of a pickup truck he has his mom rent with the money from selling his stuff.

At U.A.'s entrance exam he sees Bakugo across the room and tries to ignore the heat in his mouth. He knows he's aced the written portion but he's still nervous about the practicality of using his quirk against enemies. It goes surprisingly well though, his training has paid off and he's tossing enemies left and right without having to really move from the spot he's standing in.

When the big robot rolls out and starts sacking everything, he's earned a couple dozen points and his head is pounding, but he doesn't move from his spot. He looks up at the behemoth of circuitry in front of him and roars. Fire licks out of his mouth so bright and hot that the beast begins to melt and crumple in on itself. He blacks out from exhaustion and when he wakes up it's amid stunned whispers and dozens of wide eyes looking down at him as Recovery Girl lectures him on not overexerting himself.

His mom is waiting for him at home with a cheerful "How'd it go!?" and his favorite dinner on the table.

"I think it went pretty well."

He snatches up a spare candle on his way to bed and even though his whole body urges him to get to sleep he spends the next hour lighting the candle with his breath and blowing it out again.

His first day at U.A. is rough. His quirks aren't exactly suited to boost his scores on the fitness test. He hears Bakugo mutter a "Quirkless loser." under his breath and that sets just enough of a fire under him to propel the ball he's holding far enough to give him a passing score.

Classes with All Might are particularly difficult. He's at once guilty and doting and treats him like a porcelain doll. It makes Izuku's blood boil.

The next day, he faces off against Bakugo during the hero training. He hasn't bothered to learn any of their other classmate's names. He keeps to himself mostly so it's not surprising when he sends the girl he's partnered up with off so he can face Bakugo alone. Bakugo is predictable. He tears after Izuku in a fury of fists, shouts, and explosions and Izuku sneers, toying with his prey, he doesn't even use his quirk just dodges until one explosion gets a little too close. Then he's in full Darth Vader mode. He pushes Bakugo around like a rag while he stands there laughing.

"Surprise! Thanks for the advice, Kaachan! If it weren't for you I never would have gotten my quirks!"

The hero team loses because the girl can't figure out a way to disarm the other villain and All Might has to step in to insure Izuku doesn't snap Bakugo's neck. Bakugo spends the rest of the day in the infirmary and their classmates shy away from Izuku whispering to each other.

He watches them all fight with rapt attention. Watching for openings and how their quirks would measure up to his. He doesn't think any of them would stand a chance.

Every day is another day for his quirks to grow stronger. He knows he has a lot of catching up to do so he practices with vigor.

The day of the USJ attack puts him in his place a little though. By himself, he's able to take down a few of the low level villains, but they're nothing compared to the big guy. He ends up butting heads with Bakugo more than anything as they both try to take out the guy with the warp quirk at the same time.

Watching All Might's sheer power is oddly thrilling in a way it hadn't been before his accident. Even in his weakened state, Izuku watches him and thinks _that's what I need to catch up to, that's what I need to surpass._

For the most part they all make it out unscathed. Cementoss throws up a wall to conceal All Might and even though he can't see him, he knows what he looks like now in his weakened form spitting up blood. _One day I'm going to surpass him._

Izuku does fairly well in the sports festival. He places high enough in the race to move on and his quirk comes in handy during the cavalry battle scoring his team enough points to move forward. He doesn't use his fire breath. He thinks of it as his secret weapon for the hand to hand combat portion.

His first opponent has dark bags under his eyes and purple hair. He jeers at Izuku in an attempt to incite a response, but Izuku only quirks an eyebrow and pushes him out of the arena with his quirk, yawns, and walks back into the waiting area and to his seat.

With every new match he sits and takes notes; strengths, weaknesses, quirk abilities, strategies to beat them. His classmates give him funny looks, but the girl he teamed up with during the hero training is the only one who tries to talk to him. He doesn't look away from the field or his notebook and he can tell she's about to give up.

"So, um, I'm up against Bakugo?" It sounds like a question, "We sort of have similar quirks, do you have any tips?" There it is. The actual question.

"We don't have similar quirks."

"Uhh…"

"You have to touch the object you're using your quirk on and you don't have as much control over the direction it moves in." He's still writing while he talks and in his periphery he can see that the girl looks a bit perturbed. "I move things with my mind. They aren't similar at all."

"Oh, uh, okay. Sorry, I, uh, didn't mean to offend you." She turns around and starts heading back to her friends.

"He always swings first with his right."

"Wha- Oh! Uh, thank you!" She stutters.

As she heads back to her friends he hears the guy with the tape quirk say something along the lines of, "Why do you try to talk to that guy? He's a sociopath!"

"How do you know, Sero?"

"You didn't see the way he was fighting during the hero training. He would have killed Bakugo if All Might hadn't stepped in."

She does surprisingly well against Bakugo. She deflects his right hook and attempts to strategize and outsmart him but the sheer brutal ferocity of his quirk is too much. At least their match was entertaining to watch.

The next match isn't easy. He's up against Endeavor's son with the ice quirk. He thwarts the guys attempt to freeze him by melting the ice with his fire breath. Everyone in the stands sits breathless. There's murmurs of _wait I thought he had a telekinesis quirk,_ and _two dual wielders up against each other._

He tries to push the other guy out of the ring but he uses his ice to freeze himself in place. He works to melt the ice and push the guy in those brief moments when it's been turned to slush, but even as the boy's body starts to ice over he holds his ground and resolves to use his left side to fire off a few long distance flames, but this creates an opening for Izuku. The other boy is distracted and melting his ice with his own quirk. Izuku gives him a final push and a lift across the arena so the other boy is sitting in the dirt by the entrance to the waiting area.

The crowd is stunned. Endeavor's son beaten a boy who was quirkless a mere six months ago.

He's more excited than he reasonably should be to fight Bakugo again. He can tell Bakugo is nervous. He's frowning and he doesn't say a word just waits for the signal to start and darts over to him fast trying to get to him before he can use his quirk. Izuku lets him think he might actually get a punch in before he stops him in midair, open hand inches from his face. He doesn't have to face Bakugo to know he's going to fire off an explosion, he turns Bakugo in the other direction.

"Fucking put me down, Deku and fight me!"

"Okay." He drops Bakugo too close to the ground to react in time. "Does it bother you that your suggestion to kill myself is what made my dreams come true?" He knows no one else can hear what they're saying, but it feels so good to see Bakugo bring himself to his feet looking sick to his stomach. "I can hardly believe it myself! Not one, but two quirks! I don't even need to touch you to take you down."

He laughs as he lifts Bakugo straight up and drops him. Bakugo fires off an explosion to stop his fall, but propels himself into the flames Izuku is shooting over his head. Izuku grabs him with his quirk again and slams him into the ground.

The crowd is in an uproar. He's being too rough. He isn't even giving Bakugo a second to breathe, to think, to fight back. He isn't acting like a hero.

"Why don't you just end this, Deku!?" Bakugo screams when he finds his breath.

It's Aizawa that steps in, erasing Izuku's quirk and releasing Bakugo from his hold.

"What are you doing? This is no place be taking your revenge out! This is a hero academy!"

They escort him off the field and take a sobbing Bakugo to the infirmary.

The thing is Izuku doesn't even feel bad.

Izuku is disqualified from the sports festival. Bakugo accepts his honorary first place trophy quietly with tear stained cheeks. There's talk of expelling Izuku from U.A.

All Might visits his house and talks with his mom. Izuku refuses to leave his room and face the man that was once his hero.

"Please, offer young Midoriya my sincerest apologies." He hears it from behind his closed door, but it means nothing to him. He gets the letter that weekend terminating his enrollment at U.A. He hides the letter from his mom and falls into the routine of leaving every morning like he's going to class and wandering around the city until it's time to return home.

"Izuku, honey, is everything okay? You seem different."

"Yeah, mom, everything's fine."

It's one of the last days before summer vacation and he's wandering around the mall people watching. He's fingering through his wallet to see if he has enough money for a pretzel when he sees them. It's his old classmates splitting off in search of gear for their training camp. He ducks his head down not wanting to be seen and turns further towards the pretzel cart. When he's sure they've all passed, he shoves his wallet back into his pocket and turns to leave.

An arm wraps around his shoulders before he can make it to the exit though and he looks into a face that is both familiar and not with hard lines and a wide smile.

"Long time no see! Why don't we have a little chat?"

The next week he finds himself sitting in a dilapidated bar with the warp quirk guy, a psychotic teenage girl, a boy with a fucked up face and arms, a lizard man, and Shigaraki himself discussing their next step in dismantling the hero status quo.

"Who the fuck are you? You're not fucking Deku! The Deku I knew wouldn't do this! The Deku I knew wanted to be a hero!" Bakugo has gotten exponentially faster. He punches Izuku square in the face before he's sent flying and using his explosions to catch himself.

"The Deku you know is dead!" He yells back. "He jumped off a building because you told him to!"

The other classmates fighting around them stare horrified and falter. Bakugo visibly flinches. "It wasn't supposed to be like this! You weren't supposed to-," He chokes and coughs on the smoke filling his lungs. The forest is burning all around them.

"Come out on top? Get my quirk? Beat you? Ha!" Izuku is laughing but not in the "ha ha" this is funny way.

"You weren't supposed to jump!" Bakugo punches him again while his guard is down. He idly wonders when he got this fast. He's been punched by Bakugo enough to know that he hasn't always been this strong either.

Bakugo holds the front of his shirt and looks down at him with tear filled eyes.

"Deku, I- I'm sorry, Izuku." He sits there stunned while the magician guy pockets the orb that houses Bakugo. He sends the classmates that are running towards them flying and steps back into the portal.

Izuku knows Bakugo could get out of his restraints if he wanted to. He watches from the other side of the room as Bakugo's eyes dart to each of the villains and linger on Izuku hidden in the darkest corner.

Shigaraki is going on about something or another. They all know the plan. Wait to draw All Might out and then take him down. Izuku runs through the plan one more time in his head. He's certain this isn't going to work no matter how powerful this master of Shigaraki's is.

The hero's show up, they warp to the collapsed warehouse, he subdues a frantic Bakugo before he can escape, and then there is All Might. He watches his former hero destroy himself before his eyes and wonders if any of this is even worth it if it's not really about him getting his revenge. At the last minute he tosses Bakugo over to a neighboring building and watches him look down at him with wide eyes before taking his opportunity to flee.

The last thing Izuku sees is Shigaraki's hand coming toward his face as it cracks and disintegrates.

 _The Izuku I knew wanted to be a hero._

Yeah, he did.


End file.
